Some wounds refuse to heal. Mary Kathryn Nagle’s daring new work, which debuts as the fourth production in Arena Stage’s Power Plays initiative, travels the intersections of personal and political truths, historic and present struggles. Sarah Ridge Polson, a young Cherokee lawyer fighting to restore her Nation’s jurisdiction, must confront the ever-present ghosts of her grandfathers. With shadows stretching from 1830s Cherokee Nation (now present-day Georgia) and Andrew Jackson’s White House to the Cherokee Nation in present-day Oklahoma, Sovereignty asks how high the flames of anger can rise before they ultimately consume the truth.

Cast

JOSEPH CARLSON

Andrew Jackson / Ben

KYLA GARCÍA

Sarah Polson

MICHAEL GLENN

Samuel Worcester / Mitch

JAKE HART

Elias Boudinot / Watie

KALANI QUEYPO

John Ridge

ANDREW ROA

Major Ridge / Roger Ridge Polson

DOREA SCHMIDT

Sarah Bird Northrup / Flora Ridge / Offstage Woman's Voice

TODD SCOFIELD

White Chorus Man

JAKE WAID

John Ross / Jim Ross

JOSEPH CARLSON

Andrew Jackson / Ben

makes his Arena Stage debut. D.C. credits include Colossal (Olney Theater Center, Helen Hayes nomination), The Night Alive(Round House) and Macbeth in Voodoo Macbeth (American Century Theater). Regional credits include Stanley in Streetcar Named Desire (The Firehouse Theater, RTCC Award nomination); Tom Joad in Grapes of Wrath (Virginia Repertory Theater); Dancing at Lughnasa (Tantrum Theater); and most recently the East Coast premiere of Karen Rizzo’s Mutual Philanthropy (New Jersey Repertory). TV credits include Turn (AMC), Frank James in American West (AMC) produced by Robert Redford, and Frontiersmen(History Channel) produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, where he stars as legendary explorer Cpt. William Clark. As a citizen artist, Joe is an Artistic Associate with The Conciliation Project, and holds an M.F.A. in Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum. theconciliationproject.org

returns to Arena Stage, having appeared in Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery and Good People. Michael is a D.C.-based actor who has performed on dozens of stages in the area. Favorite past productions include School for Lies (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Jumpers for Goalposts (Studio Theatre); Brighton Beach Memoirs (Theater J); Cat’s Cradle and The Hothouse(Longacre Lea); Clybourne Park (Woolly Mammoth); Stage Kiss and THIS (Round House); Sense & Sensibility, Henry VII, Arcadia (Folger Theatre); Scapin (Constellation Theater); and The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Signature Theatre). Michael does voice over work for Graphic Audio, where he has performed as The Flash, Sinestro and Star Lord, as well as a host of cowboys, outlaws, mutants and magicians. He can be seen next as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (Imagination Stage).

JAKE HART

Elias Boudinot / Watie

makes his Arena Stage debut. Recent TV credits include The Blacklist (NBC), The Deuce (HBO), Shades of Blue (NBC) and others. Coming up this season, you can catch him on Sneaky Pete (Amazon). Select New York theater credits include Jesus Hopped the A Train (Atlantic), Smoke (Signature Theater), Winter’s Tale (HERE Arts Center), The Public Theater Shakespeare Lab and others. Jake has spent years traveling across the country, even making a stop at Round House Theatre while on tour with Grandchildren of The Buffalo Soldiers. As a video game and voice actor, Jake can be heard as Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, and will soon be heard as a certain giant robot that transforms into a large truck. Please protect indigenous America W’anishi, Wado, thank you.

KALANI QUEYPO

John Ridge

makes his Arena Stage debut. He is a founding member of SAG-AFTRA’s National Native American Committee and serves on the Advisory Council for Native Voices Theater at the Autry Museum of the American West. Before moving to L.A., Kalani trained in New York and was featured on stages all over the country including Goodspeed, Trinity Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, The Wilma Theater and The Ordway. Kalani has appeared in Terrence Malick’s Oscar Award nominated The New World and Steven Spielberg’s Emmy Award-winning Into the West and Slow West(Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize). TV credits include Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, Bones, Hawaii Five-0 and a critically-acclaimed performance as Squanto in Saints & Strangers. Kalani is currently shooting a second season of Jamestown with the producers of Downton Abbey.

ANDREW ROA

Major Ridge / Roger Ridge Polson

is making his Arena Stage debut. An award-winning actor, director, and film maker, his stage credits include the premiere of Black Elk Speaks (Denver Center Theatre/Mark Taper Forum), The Spirit of Pocahontas(Disneyland Theater), Equus (Nevada Repertory) and Happy (Montana Repertory). Since 1999, he has been a founding Company Member of Native Voices at the Autry, playing roles in Please Do Not Touch the Indians (Outstanding Theatre Performance, First Americans in the Arts) and Kino and Teresa, among others, and directing and mentoring young playwrights. Film/TV credits include Picking up the Pieces, Fame, QuantumLeap, The Ellen Burstyn Show and The Iceman Chronicles. Andrew is also a film director and screenwriter with five features and several shorts to his credit.

DOREA SCHMIDT

Sarah Bird Northrup / Flora Ridge / Offstage Woman's Voice

is so glad to be returning to Arena Stage after performing as Mrs. Sowerberry/Mrs. Bedwin in Oliver! and Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof. Other D.C. credits include School for Lies(Shakespeare Theatre Company); Caroline, or Change (Round House); Collective Rage(Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Helen Hayes Award Outstanding Supporting Actress); Carousel and Mary Poppins (Olney Theatre Center); The Love of the Nightingale (Constellation Theatre Company); and The Fantasticks, Black Comedy and The Last 5 Years (No Rules Theatre Company). Regional credits include My Fair Lady(The Cape Playhouse) and Crimes of the Heart and The Beaux’ Stratagem (Everyman Theatre). She attended The National Theatre Institute and the William Esper Studio. Dorea is a proud company member of Actors Arena and Only Make Believe. doreaschmidt.com

TODD SCOFIELD

White Chorus Man

returns to Arena Stage after appearing in The City of Conversation. Over the past 13 years, he has worked with Shakespeare Theatre Company (As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, The Importance of Being Earnest, Twelfth Night), Folger Theatre (The Tempest, Measure for Measure, Henry VIII, Mary Stuart), Round House (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, NSFW, Stage Kiss), Theater J (C.S. Lewis in Freud’s Last Session, Bal Masque), Adventure Theatre (Winnie the Pooh), Studio Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Olney Theatre Center and Ford’s Theatre. Outside of the D.C.-area, Todd worked at Arden Theatre Company and spent four seasons at the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. On TV, he was seen in recurring roles on seasons three and five of The Wire.

JAKE WAID

John Ross / Jim Ross

makes his Arena Stage debut. He was last seen in D.C. as the title role in Macbeth (Perseverance Theatre), which was translated into the language of his Tlingit tribe, and culminated with a run at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Other credits include Twelfth Night (Shakespeare and Company); Cymbeline (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival); Hamlet (Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre); George Bonga: Black Voyageur (History Theatre); the road weeps, the well runs dry (Pillsbury House); and Raven Odyssey, The Crucible, Moby Dickand Genesis (Perseverance Theatre). He has also worked with La Jolla Playhouse, Native Voices at the Autry and Working Class Theatre. He studied at Cornish College and Freehold Actors Studio.

Creative

MARY KATHRYN NAGLE

Playwright

MOLLY SMITH

Director

ANITA MAYNARD-LOSH

Associate and Text Director

KEN MACDONALD

Set Designer

LINDA CHO

Costume Designer

ROBERT WIERZEL

Lighting Designer

ED LITTLEFIELD

Sound Designer

MARK HOLTHUSEN

Projection Designer

JON AITCHISON

Wig Designer

LEWIS SHAW

Fight Director

JOCELYN CLARKE

Dramaturg

ZACH CAMPION

Vocal Coach

SUSAN R. WHITE

Stage Manager

TREVOR A. RILEY

Assistant Stage Manager

MARY KATHRYN NAGLE

Playwright

is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She currently serves as the executive director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. She is also a partner at Pipestem Law, P.C., where she works to protect tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. She has authored numerous briefs in federal appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. She has received commissions from Arena Stage; The Rose Theater in Omaha, Nebraska; Portland Center Stage; Denver Center; and Yale Repertory. Her other plays include Manahatta, Return to Niobrara, Mnisose, Diamonds, Waaxe’s Law, Sliver of a Full Moon, My Father’s Bones, Miss Lead and Fairly Traceable.

MOLLY SMITH

Director

has served as Artistic Director since 1998. Her more than 30 directing credits at Arena Stage include The Originalist, Fiddler on the Roof, Camp David, Carousel, Mother Courage and Her Children, Oklahoma!, A Moon for the Misbegotten, My Fair Lady, The Great White Hope, The Music Man, Legacy of Light, The Women of Brewster Place, Cabaret, South Pacific, All My Sons and How I Learned to Drive. Her directorial work has also been seen at Canada’s Shaw Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, Montreal’s Centaur Theatre and Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded and ran from 1979-1998. Molly has been a leader in new play development for over 30 years. She is a great believer in first, second and third productions of new work and has championed projects including Dear Evan Hansen; Next to Normal; Passion Play, a cycle; and How I Learned to Drive. She has worked alongside playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, Lawrence Wright, Karen Zacarías, John Murrell, Eric Coble, Charles Randolph-Wright and many others. She led the re-invention of Arena Stage, focusing on the architecture and creation of the Mead Center for American Theater and positioning Arena Stage as a national center for American artists. During her time with the company, Arena Stage has workshopped more than 100 productions, produced 39 world premieres, staged numerous second and third productions and been an important part of nurturing nine projects that went on to have a life on Broadway. In 2014, Molly made her Broadway debut directing The Velocity of Autumn, following its critically acclaimed run at Arena Stage. She was awarded honorary doctorates from American University and Towson University. This summer, she will direct The Originalist Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters.

ANITA MAYNARD-LOSH

Associate and Text Director

is in her 14th season at Arena Stage. She directed the world premiere of Our War and served as associate director on several productions, including Carousel, Oliver! and Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End. Anita trained and taught at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, was on the faculty at Webster University in St. Louis, headed the theater department at the University of Alaska Southeast and was the associate artistic director of Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska. The Alaska native-inspired production of Macbeththat Anita conceived and directed was performed in English and Tlingit at the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C. Through Arena Stage’s devised theater program, Voices of Now, Anita has collaborated on creating and directing original plays with communities in India and Croatia.

made her Arena Stage debut with Orpheus Descending (2004) and now returns for her 12th production. Broadway credits include Anastasia (Tony Award nomination); A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder (Tony Award); and Velocity of Autumn. Other Washington designs include Dog in the Manger and Macbeth at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Linda’s work has also been seen Off-Broadway, at numerous regional theaters and Opera companies, and she will have her Metropolitan Opera debut next season with Samson et Dalila. Linda is the proud recipient of the Irene Sharaff Young Master Award and has been honored with the Ruth Morely Design Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. Linda is an alumnus of McGill University and holds an M.F.A from the Yale School of Drama. lindacho.com/

ROBERT WIERZEL

Lighting Designer

has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theater, dance, contemporary music, museums and opera on stages throughout the country and abroad. He has designed at most major regional theaters across the country including Arena Stage, A.C.T San Francisco, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Guthrie, Shakespeare Theatre DC, Hartford Stage, Goodman Theatre-Chicago, Alliance Theatre- Atlanta, Mark Taper Fourm-L.A., and Long Wharf Thetre among many others. Broadway productions include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill starring Audra McDonald: FELA! (Tony Award nomination) and David Copperfield’s debut in Dreams and Nightmares. Robert has designed with opera companies in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Norway, Toronto, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, Washington D.C., Virginia, Florida, Atlanta and Chicago, and over 50 productions with Glimmerglass Festival. His dance work includes 32 years with Bill T. Jones and the BTJ/AZ Company.

ED LITTLEFIELD

Sound Designer

is a freelance percussionist, educator and composer based out of Seattle, WA. He is Tlingit from Sitka, Alaska and has released two albums featuring traditional native melodies with the Native Jazz Quartet called “Walking Between Worlds” and “NJQ: Stories” Ed has played K’alyaan in the premier of Battles of Fire and Water and written and performed an original score for Eurydice for Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska. He has done sound design and composition for the world premieres of Our Voices Will Be Heard and composition and cultural advisor for They Don’t Talk Back at Native voices at the Autry, La Jolla Playhouse and Perseverance Theater. Most recently he was the composer and sound designer for Off the Rails at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

MARK HOLTHUSEN

Projection Designer

makes his Arena Stage debut. His career spans photography, motion, theater and digital innovation. From album art to music videos, Mark has created distinctive work for performers including Roger Waters, American Music Club, The Tiger Lillies, 16 Horsepower and The Dodos. In 2009, Roger Waters and Sony Music asked Mark to rethink traditional stage design for the debut of Waters’ opera, Ça Ira. Over 120 of Mark’s photographs served as the opera’s sole visual narration and were met by critical acclaim. In 2012, Mark and The Tiger Lillies collaborated on a performance of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Mark’s award-winning work has been lauded by Communication Arts, Graphis, American Photography and PDN. Mark has also won the IPA Photographer of the Year Awards for both Advertising and Music.

JON AITCHISON

Wig Designer

is happy to be returning to Arena Stage. He was most recently Wig Master at Arena for She Loves Me in the 2006/07 Season. He has designed for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Wolf Trap Opera Company, and Centerstage.

LEWIS SHAW

Fight Director

returns to Arena Stage after last season’s A Raisin in the Sun. Regional credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, Wait Until Dark, Great Expectations, Deathtrap and Ruined (Everyman Theater, resident company member); Nabucco and Don Giovanni (Washington National Opera); and A Skull in Cinemas, Snow Falling on Cedars and Bus Stop (Baltimore Center Stage). Lewis is the owner/operator of Vulcan’s Forge, and has made weapons and action props for many regional and Broadway productions, as well as The Vampire Diaries, Gotham, Daredevil, Iron Fist and the upcoming Defenders.

JOCELYN CLARKE

Dramaturg

is currently Theatre Adviser to the Arts Council of Ireland and Dramaturg at American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He has taught dramaturgy at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Columbia University and Trinity College Dublin. He was the Commissioning and Literary Manager of the Abbey Theatre for four years, and lead theater critic with The Sunday Tribune for nine years. He is an associate artist with The Civilians and Theatre Mitu in New York. He has written six plays for Anne Bogart and the SITI Company — Bob, Alice’s Adventures Underground, Room, Score, Antigone and Trojan Women (After Euripides) – and Chess Game No. 5, his new collaboration with the company, premiered in New York in March.

is thrilled to be a part of Arena’s 68th season and to be working, once again, with Artistic Director Molly Smith. Susan is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

TREVOR A. RILEY

Assistant Stage Manager

previous Arena Stage credits include The Price, Intelligence, Carousel, Destiny of Desire and Our War. Other D.C.-area credits include The Jungle Book, Jack and Phil, Slayers of Giants-INC, A Year with Frog and Toad and Sinbad: The Untold Tale (Imagination Stage); My Fair Lady, The Diary of Anne Frank, Bakersfield Mist, Godspell and A Christmas Carol (Olney Theatre Center); and Just The Two of Each of Us, Appropriate, Detroit and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Woolly Mammoth).

Multimedia

"Sovereignty" Teaser

"Sovereignty: A Community Conversation" — Commissioning a New Work

"Sovereignty" Audience Reactions

Kyla García (Sarah Polson) in Sovereignty, running January 12-February 18, 2018 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.